19 - Otherworldly

by SilkyNoire

By the time Sariel reached the cliff, the storm had closed the distance. It was still some ways off, but quickly coming in. Of course, that wasn't what Sariel was paying attention to. In the sea below her, a sickly green light emanated from the sea. It made her ill just looking at it.

Then something came out of it.

A massive, writhing mass of eyes and tentacles emerged from the sea, groaning and moaning like those creatures in the temple. It kept rising up, and up, until it towered over her. Spikes and teeth and maws covered the thing, and all the eyes turned to look at her. She felt small. And very afraid.

Then she remembered her dream - no, its dream. If it wasn't stopped, it would infest and infect everything, everywhere. At least, that's what it wanted. She grit her teeth, and drew her dagger. Even if she died - which, she probably would - someone had to do something, anything.

Without thinking, she dove from the cliff. She instantly regretted her decision, but that had never stopped her before. She hit the water with a small splash, and swam for the writhing mass. Maybe she could stab it in the eye, or-

A great tentacle immediately wrapped itself around her, crushing the air from her lungs. She wanted to scream, but enough of her mental faculties remained to know that was a bad idea. She whimpered and wriggled instead, trying to break free. Nothing worked, and she drew ever closer to a maw that would swallow her whole.

A violent jolt shook the tentacled monster, and by extension, Sariel. She was released, but stunned. She just floated there limp, her dagger trailing down into the abyss.

The giant sea serpent that had sunk the pirate ships was now biting deep into the tentacled monstrosity, coiling iself around the entity and crushing it like it had done to Sariel. Loud shrieks and groans pounded through her body, and the sudden realisation of conractions suddenly woke her back up.

She put a hand over her mouth as she frantically looked for her dagger. When she spotted it below her, she swam down to grab it, then went for the surface.

But once again, it seemed like she wouldn't make it. Her vision went dark, and she started to fall limp once more.

Moments later, she breached the surface with an almighty gasp. She coughed up water for the second time that day, and looked around. The tentacled monster was gone. She spun around, and almost screamed when she saw he visage of the sea serpent poking out of the water, staring at her. It didn't do anything. It just looked at her.

"Um, hi?" She said hesitantly.

It released a low rumble. She had no idea what that meant, but at least it wasn't trying to kill her. Maybe it was friendly?

"So..." she began, "Do you happen to know which way Waterdeep is?"